


Fish Bait

by anthropobiology



Category: N.Flying (Band)
Genre: Beach Towns, Boating Expeditions, Gen, Mermaids, Paranormal, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 19:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11766957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthropobiology/pseuds/anthropobiology
Summary: It's almost August in a touristy beach resort town. As a way to commemorate their last day of summer vacation together before real life sends them in separate directions, five friends head out on a fishing boat with a day's worth of snacks to go on a rather absurd mermaid hunt.





	Fish Bait

**Author's Note:**

> I was definitely inspired by N.Flying's "The Real" music video, so with a little bit of prompting, I wrote this. Hope you enjoy. I really wanted to write something fast and light and fun!

It all started with a rumor.

 

These kinds of things have to start that way, you know. A rumor of a hidden treasure or a once-lost underwater civilization or... a ghost ship. A surprisingly high number of ghost ships. Must be something in the water.

 

Rumors are the start of things. Just word of mouth, imagination and… greed. The desire for riches and granted wishes will drive anyone to do crazy things even if there isn’t any solid proof of those riches or granted wishes. Rumors are the start of history or the start of war. In this particular case, a rumor is the start of a journey.

 

The journey of five friends who needed to (for the betterment of all mankind, dammit) sail out into the middle of the ocean on the hunt for a--

 

“You want us to go look for _what_ now?” Hoesung asked. His mouth had been full of potato chips four seconds earlier but now the majority of them had flown out of his mouth to who knows where.

 

“A mermai-” Seunghyub started.

 

“Hold up,” Hoesung interrupted. It was taking him a bit to process Seunghyub’s suggestion.  “You want us to go out there-” He pointed to the ‘out there’ in question. “-in my dad’s boat?”

 

“Ye-”

 

“In my _dad’s_ boat?” repeated Hoesung, voice going up an octave with shock.

 

“Yea-”

 

Hoesung interrupted again. “In _my_ dad’s boat?” He pointed at himself, eyes wide.

 

“You said that already,” Kwangjin pointed out calmly before taking a bite out of his cotton candy.

 

Hoesung ignored him. “Let me get this straight. For the quote-unquote betterment of all mankind, you want us to steal my dad’s boat to go look for a… a… a _mermaid_ out in the middle of the ocean?”

 

“Where else would they be?” said Kwangjin.

 

Once again, Hoesung ignored him. “Seunghyub, are you insane?”

 

Seunghyub inhaled as if to speak.

 

“Don’t answer that!” Hoesung cut him off.

 

Kwangjin snickered.

 

They were all leaning over the wooden railing of the boardwalk, standing shoulder to shoulder with their elbows propped up on the handrail. The wind was strong today, blowing their hair and loose shirts every which way. On the other side of the railing, a strip of pure white sand stretched out before them and, beyond it, the ocean was deep and vast and blue. It stretched from horizon to horizon and sparkled beneath the mid-summer sun. It was a cloudless and humid July day. The kind of day singers wrote reggae hits about. The beach was crowded and full of movement. Multi-colored sun umbrellas, towels and coolers were everywhere. Tourists and locals alike mingled on the sand.

 

The five of them were no different. Tourists and locals. Five extremely different boys who had been and probably only would be friends for the remaining length of summer vacation.

 

That was another thing about days like this. They came to an end.

 

“What even made you come up with this silly idea?” asked Hoesung.

 

Seunghyub grinned and reached into the pocket of his shorts for his phone. “Over the weekend, some fishermen were out and got a mermaid caught in one of their nets and barely managed to cut the ropes loose before the thing capsized them. Everyone in the marina has been talking about it. Haven’t you heard? Look, here’s a picture.”

 

He handed his phone over and Hoesung examined the poorly-lit photograph only to be unimpressed. “This is a blurry blob.” He aimed the screen towards Kwangjin’s face. “This is a blurry blob!”

 

Kwangjin bit off more of his fluffy blue cotton candy and squinted at the screen. “I don’t know, man. That’s clearly a face. You can kind of see a nose right over there and maybe some eyebrows.”

 

“You can’t possibly be onboard with this.” Hoesung shook his head. “That’s not a mermaid. That’s an out of focus finger. You can see the ring!”

 

“Umm, that’s the ship railing,” clarified Seunghyub, raising his hand like he was being called on in class.

 

Hoesung reached past Kwangjin to show the photograph to Jaehyun, who wasn’t even paying attention. The boy had pulled his expensive sunglasses down his nose to waggle his eyebrows and wink at a girl rollerblading past them on the boardwalk. Hoesung hit him on the side of the head with Seunghyub’s phone.

 

“Ow!” Jaehyun spun towards him, wincing. “She was just about to make eye contact with me. I almost had her hooked.”

 

Hoesung pressed the phone close to Jaehyun’s face. “Please tell me Seunghyub’s not going to convince us to go mermaid hunting.”

 

Jaehyun didn’t even look at the phone. He was already turning back towards the crowd on the boardwalk, looking for someone else to flirt with. “I wouldn’t mind a day out on the boat.”

 

“See?” Seunghyub said excitedly. “Just get the boat like usual and let’s all go.”

 

This was too much for Hoesung to handle. Their ‘days out on the boat’ on average were nothing more complicated than a lap or two around the marina. “Like usual? We never go further than the mouth of the inlet. You’re talking about the middle of the ocean.”

 

Seunghyub’s happy expression didn’t change. Actually, his smile widened. He squeezed Hoesung’s shoulder good-naturedly. “You’re the only one making a fuss, Hoesung.”

 

Hoesung needed to get at least one of the boys on his side. There was always one whose support he could count on. He reached past Seunghyub to hold the phone up towards Hoon. “Is this a blurry out-of-focus mermaid or a blurry out-of-focus finger?”

 

Hoon, wordlessly sipping his soda this whole time, peered at the photograph for a moment. Then he scrunched up his face and shrugged his shoulders up to his ears, waving one of his hands like _Kinda sorta both_? To his credit, Hoon usually only spoke in exaggerated facial expressions and wild gestures but that never stopped the other boys from perfectly understanding him.

 

“That’s four for and one against,” Seunghyub declared, snatching his phone out of Hoesung’s hand. “Looks like we’re going on a trip.”

 

“In our favorite stolen ship,” Kwangjin chimed in, his tongue bright blue from his snack.

 

“Not stolen. Borrowed.” Jaehyun clarified. He slid his sunglasses back up his nose.  

 

“I don’t believe this,” Hoesung threw up a hand in surrender before stuffing his mouth with a fresh handful of potato chips. He chomped on them angrily and stared hard out at the ocean like all of this was the fault of the water. “My dad’s gonna flip.”

 

“He should be used to it by now,” stated Jaehyun. Apparently, he’d given up on flirting and was paying the guys his full attention. “If he was really so against you taking the boat out, don’t you think he’d stop putting the keys on the hook by your back door?”

 

Hoesung refused to acknowledge that he actually had a point.

 

“That settles it,” said Kwangjin. “We should hit up the convenience store to stock up on snacks and then go find us a mermaid.”

 

Jaehyun jumped up and let out an excited holler that startled a woman passing by. Hoon clenched his fist and nodded, startling no one but practically expressing the same level of enthusiasm.

 

“Is it too late to suggest we go see a movie?” Hoesung had to at least _try_.

 

“Definitely,” Kwangjin said.

 

“Besides,” Seunghyub piped up, slinging his backpack off of his shoulders and holding it above his head like it was Simba. “I already bought us matching uniforms!”

 

~*~

 

The matching uniforms in question were short-sleeved navy blue button-down shirts decorated with enamel pins and plastic medals to look like something Navy boys would wear. They were a little _much_ but Seunghyub insisted. The shirts also came paired with rather short shorts. Like, really short. Seunghyub could have bought pants for them all but was more than ready to show off the beefy thighs he’d been working on at the gym. Kwangjin was just ready to get going and honestly would have worn a speedo. Jaehyun thought the shorts made him look taller which was always a plus when you were the shortest in the group. Hoon didn’t have a particular opinion either way but he damn well looked good in them.

 

Hoesung had to be… strongly persuaded... to don the rather form-fitting apparel and only gave in after being bribed with frozen yogurt (tart raspberry with huge graham cracker bits, a herd of gummy bears and a light drizzle of chocolate chips) and a strict no camera policy (which Seunghyub immediately violated by filming Hoesung untying the boat from the marina dock and posting it on Instagram with several peach emojis as the caption, a video Hoesung would never see.)

 

“Should we start on the ramen or the snack cakes?” Hoesung needed to know as he looked through the plastic bags containing an array of snacks Kwangjin had bought at the convenience store earlier.

 

“We haven’t even left yet,” Jaehyun pointed out, only just now stepping up onto the deck of the red and blue painted fishing boat.

 

It was half past three and the sun was already starting to beat down hard on them. Seunghyub hadn’t even _thought_ of buying matching hats!

 

Next time. Next time.

 

“Didn’t you _just_ stuff your face with that big tub of fro-yo?” Seunghyub asked. “We had to sit and wait for you. The girl at the counter thought it was for all of us.”

 

“But that wasn’t food-food. It was just food.” Shamelessly, Hoesung’s eyes settled on the plastic ramen bowls. Shrimp flavored. Appropriate.

 

Hoon pouted and rubbed his stomach with both of his hands like _I could eat_.

 

Jaehyun groaned. “Now I’m hungry, too.”

 

With the matter settled, Hoon and Jaehyun went below deck to boil the water while Hoesung and Seunghyub climbed to the wheelhouse to crank up the engine and steer his dad’s fishing boat away from the docks.

 

“Summer’s almost over, you know,” Seunghyub sighed as he sank down into the captain’s seat on the bridge. Even when he was just lounging back, his tall frame made him seem imposing.

 

“Don’t remind me,” Hoesung grunted.

 

August wasn’t even a week away now. August meant going back to school. August meant saying goodbye.

 

Seunghyub continued. “It’s not something we can ignore. Things are still going to change.”

 

“I don’t want them to,” Hoesung griped. “They were just starting to get alright.” His hands tightly gripped the spokes of the ship’s steering wheel and with precise, expert movements, he guided the boat past row after row of expensive yachts, modest houseboats and rickety crabbing vessels.

 

“Summer can’t last forever,” said Seunghyub.

 

Beach city life wasn’t always as glamorous as summer vacationers thought. Sure, you had the beach at your front door but the boardwalk was always covered in litter by day’s end. The stink of fish seemed to permanently hang in the air down by the pier. Thunderstorms rolled in off the sea only to give way to sunny, bright skies thirty minutes later. On top of that, once all the tourists left, there actually weren’t too many locals remaining and things could get terribly quiet and lonely and _cold_ come September.

 

Seunghyub had lived here all of his life and had gotten used to the cyclical nature of people coming and going for summer. This was only Hoesung’s second full summer here and it already felt like he was about to lose everything.

 

“I hope you’re not too mad at me,” said Seunghyub with a seriousness that made Hoesung uncomfortable. “I mean, I know you don’t really like getting roped into these kinds of things with us but Jaehyun goes back home tomorrow so I wanted us all to do one more big thing together before he left.”

 

“It’s not just him leaving,” said Hoesung. “It’s Hoon, Kwangjin and… and you, too. I’m going to be here by myself.”

 

Seunghyub nodded slowly, like he’d forgotten that detail. “So that’s what this is about.” In the spring, Seunghyub had wrapped up his two-year stint at the community college and was prepped to leave town to finish his bachelor’s at a distant university. What Hoesung was the most upset about was that Seunghyub had known about his acceptance since May but hadn’t told Hoesung until last week. “School could be life-changing for me. I can’t stay here forever,” Seunghyub eventually said. “Neither should you.”

 

“Whatever.”

 

They had left the zig zag of docks and stone breakwaters behind them and were now chugging past the lighthouse and out to the mouth of the inlet. Behind them, the towering ironwork of the amusement park on the boardwalk rose above them. Delightful shouts and carnival music echoed down to them but the happiness of that place didn’t quite seem to reach the boys.

 

Only a couple of other boats were out here in this stretch of water. Tourists sunbathing on the decks of rented sailboats or the last stragglers of fishermen returning from an early morning at work.

 

Hoesung put on some speed and steered the boat around a wide, gentle bend and then they were out of the inlet and in open, deep, wild ocean.

 

In all honesty, it was Hoesung’s first time taking the boat this far out without his father hovering over his shoulder and the sudden responsibility of keeping them all safe fell down on him.

 

After a silence that had long since stretched awkwardly thin, Hoesung finally spoke up. “It’s okay, I guess. All of you leaving… It would have happened eventually. I’m surprised you all still hang out with me even though I’m such a… what did Kwangjin call me? A wet rag?”

 

“Don’t let him get to you. He’s from a well-off family and can’t stand to hear somebody say no to his ideas.”

 

“But it’s true, isn’t it? I’m always the one trying to stop you guys from having fun.”

 

“One of us probably would have wound up seriously injured if not for you keeping us in line.”

 

Hoesung shook his head. That’s not really what he wanted to do as a friend. He didn’t want to be ‘the mean one.’ “You’ll all forget about this summer soon anyways.”

 

That was another thing about summer days. They let you meet people you wouldn’t otherwise run in the same circles with… if only for a few short weeks. Kwangjin was the son of some semi-important business tycoon and a semi-famous architect. Even Jaehyun, little brother of a popular fashion designer, was only in their tiny little resort town ‘summering.’

 

None of them knew who Hoon’s family was.

 

He didn’t like to talk about it.

 

Under normal circumstances, a part-time lifeguard and the son of a fisherman couldn’t be friends with such a group but summer on the beach changed all that. A summer on the beach was like it’s own separate universe in which love and friendships and fun and rivalries and secrets could exist on a different timeline from one’s regular life. Perhaps that’s what kept people coming back year after year. They could claim a different life.

 

Hoesung picked up his trail of thought. “I just feel like I’m the odd one out sometimes. I’m always the one disagreeing.”

 

Seunghyub had found one of the fishing magazines stashed in a drawer and flipped through it without actually reading any of it. “They don’t know you like I do.”

 

“But do you know me?” Hoesung asked, keeping his eyes out the large, wide windows of the bridge. “We’ve only been friends since April.”

 

“How about this. We’re all jerks.”

 

“Except Hoon,” Hoesung corrected.

 

Seunghyub agreed. “Except Hoon.”

  

~*~

 

When the ramen was ready, Jaehyun called everyone to the deck.

 

Hoesung cut the engines and followed Seunghyub out of the wheelhouse, their earlier conversation officially on the back burner.

 

The boat was _way_ out now. Ocean in all directions. The only break in the horizon was the smudgy, dark shape of a distant oil tanker.

 

They all sat in a circle, legs crossed. Their bowls on the deck in front of them. Hoesung pulled the lid of his bowl back and inhaled the scent of his ramen.

 

Seunghyub spoke up. “Before we begin, let us pray.”

 

Everyone glanced around, unsure of what to make of this. They had eaten together quite often but none of the boys considered themselves particularly religious so praying before they ate was never a thing for them.

 

“Let us all bow our heads,” said Seunghyub, parodying the musical and slow voice of a pastor. Surprisingly, the boys obeyed. “We are all gathered here today for food and fellowship. For sustenance and brotherhood. May we eat of this meal and gain nourishment for our bodies and souls.” He was getting carried away now, hands raised to the cloudless sky.

 

The others, used to his antics, didn’t flinch at the sudden volume of his voice.

 

He continued, “May we find what it is we seek beneath these waves, O Lord. May our intentions be pure and our journey be fruitful. May we catch even a glimpse of this glorious mermaid and may our eyes be blessed with her visage!”

 

Hoesung lost his patience. He snapped his wooden chopsticks apart and used them to stir his steaming ramen. Hoon, hands clasped in front of his chest in earnest prayer, cracked open an eye and gave Hoesung a judgmental glare like _Be respectful_. Hoesung didn’t see.

 

“And may we remember this day for years to come,” Seunghyub continued. His loud and joking tone had rapidly turned serious. He was no longer shouting like an actor in a bad play but speaking from what seemed to be his heart. “May we forever be tied to each other and to this boat and to this summer. May we never forget how much fun we had this vacation and may we always be safe and happy no matter how far from this beach our lives and ambitions take us. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.”

 

“Amen,” Kwangjin and Jaehyun chorused in unison.

 

Hoseung wasn’t sure if it was all still a joke or not so he just shoved ramen in his mouth and chewed.

 

“Let’s dig in!” shouted Seunghyub.

 

The five boys, the three tourists and the two locals, friends on the verge of leaving summer and each other behind, all dug in. The strange prayer had cast an odd mood over them so they ate in uneasy silence.

 

None of them were entirely sure how much truth to those words there would be.

 

~*~

 

“Ahoy, mateys!” Jaehyun cried out in his best pirate impression. “Our booty lies out on the starboard side. I see her! The mermaid! Ripe for the claiming.”

 

They had been at sea an hour now, spending the long minutes casually snacking or napping or chatting about nothing in particular. The strong wind, bright sun and choppy waves had lulled them into a dreamy stupor but Jaehyun’s outburst had snapped them all out of it. Well, except Hoesung still stretched out across his chair sleeping.

 

“Which side is starboard again?” Kwangjin asked from his lounge chair, rolling to his feet and stretching. He hadn’t moved since they’d eaten.

 

“I’m not sure but it’s over there!” Jaehyun was pointing excitedly now, his pirate voice forgotten. “Look, look, look! We have to get over there.”

 

By then, Kwangjin had reached the railing and was peering out in the direction Jaehyun indicated. He jumped into the air. “I see something! What is that? Is it the mermaid for real?”

 

Hoon, who had been strumming a gentle tune on his ukelele, stood up and joined the other two at the railing. He, too, began pointing, grinning wildly.

 

“Go, go, go. This is not a drill!” Seunghyub grabbed Hoesung by his collar and hoisted the half-dozing boy to his feet. “To the wheelhouse.”

 

“Huh?” Groggily, Hoesung stumbled as the boat swayed to and fro on the waves, only staying upright because of Seunghyub’s firm hand on his back. “What happened?”

 

“We found the mermaid,” Seunghyub stated, guiding Hoesung up the ladder as the other boy yawned.

 

“There’s no mermaid.” Hoesung said, nearly missing a rung on the ladder due to his drowsiness.

 

“I swear there is! The boys are looking at it now.” Seunghyub hurried Hoesung along with a rather violent strike on the bottom that earned him a startled squeal.

 

From up in the bridge, Hoesung could see the other three pointing and waving their arms. He pushed the throttle forward, heard the engines rev up and spun the big, wooden wheel so that the boat would turn in the direction the boys were screeching about. He could feel the boat turning and lurching as the engine and the tide fought over which one had control of the boat.

 

“There’s no mermaid,” Hoesung repeated.  

 

“Just ease up, will ya? Have a little faith.” Seunghyub said.

 

“I have faith in the fact that none of you know what you’re doing.”

 

“Come on. It’s fun! We’ve had weirder adventures.”

 

Haunted caves. Cursed, abandoned houses. Treasure buried under shipwrecks. Seunghyub had led them all up and down the beach throughout the summer. Sometimes they found something extremely similar to what they were looking for. Most of the time they didn’t.

 

“What’s got you so confident that we’ll find anything out here?”

 

“Intuition.” Seunghyub found Hoesung’s dad’s brass spyglass and extended it before putting it to his eye. “I see a big ole shadow.”

 

It dawned on Hoesung that there might actually be something out there. All of them wouldn’t be this hype if there wasn’t. If it was just Kwangjin and Jaehyun, he could be rightfully suspicious, but Hoon as well?

 

Following pointed fingers while steering a boat wasn’t exactly easy. The waves knocked them to and fro constantly and several times the three boys down below seemed to be pointing in opposing directions. “Which way?” Hoesung asked.

 

“11, 22, 7, 48 east by 89, 109, 2, 14 north,” Seunghyub recited.

 

Hoesung rolled his eyes. “Those are just random numbers.”

 

“I’m just reporting what I see. Over.” Seunghyub made a noise like a walkie-talkie cutting out.

 

Hoesung sighed. “I don’t see anything.”

 

“You have to say over when you finish speaking. Over.”

 

“We’re standing right next-”

 

“It’s dead ahead. I see it!”

 

“Let me see that.”

 

Seunghyub handed over the spyglass. Technically, Hoesung was the only one out of the five with any actual naval navigational abilities. He peered through the spyglass, trying to orient himself with the expansive blue environment and this so-called mermaid his friends were pointing at. Hoesung only had to look at the dark shape on the water for a few moments to realize what it was.

 

He cut the engines.

 

“Dude! Full steam ahead!” Seunghyub complained, shaking Hoesung by the shoulders.

 

“Follow me.” Hoesung said, pushing open the metal door of the wheelhouse and stepping back outside. He led the way down the stairs and around towards the front deck where the others had also noticed that the boat was slowing down.

 

“Why are we stopping?” Jaehyun asked, hands over his eyes to shield them from the sun.

 

“The mermaid is so close,” Kwangjin whined, stomping his foot childishly. “We can catch up!”

 

Hoon made a flapping motion with his arms like _Are we out of gas?_

 

Hoesung pointed at the shadow. It was still quite some ways ahead of them and seemed to undulate and spin with the rise and fall of the waves. Under the haze of the sun, it did look like something very large was swimming just below the surface. “That’s a cloud, you fools.”

 

“What!?” All of them except Hoon shouted.  

 

Then they squinted upwards towards the sky where a lone low-hanging cloud was partially blocking the sun and, thus, casting a skewed shadow over the ocean.

 

“I’m going back to my nap,” Hoesung announced. It was the nicest of the thoughts running through his head at the moment. He glared at the back of Seunghyub’s head, annoyed that he’d let himself be talked into this nonsense and almost gotten excited about it. Seunghyub, however, was too busy laughing off their foolish mistake and draping his arms over the shoulders of Jaehyun and Kwangjin to notice.

 

The wind changed direction. They hit a wave and a thin spray of salt water doused their skin as the boat rocked.

 

Hoon rubbed his fingers beneath his eyes like _I think it’s going to rain_ but no one saw.

 

~*~

 

“Thanks for this,” Jaehyun said.

 

Another long hour had passed, putting them square at six in the afternoon. The sun had shifted, turning the sky dusky orange and leaving the boat’s long shadow dragging after them in the waves.

 

“Thanks for what?” Hoesung asked, sipping at his bottle of water as he leaned against the side of the cabin.

 

“For taking us out here.” Jaehyun grinned. “You’ve made my summer.”

 

“Hmm?”

 

Jaehyun’s face went red from mild embarrassment. “Don’t make me say it again. It’s so cheesy and soft.”

 

Hoesung tilted his head, not understanding. “What are you talking about?”

 

“I’m thanking you for being such a cool dude and taking us out on the boat.”

 

“You’re making it sound like this is the first time you’ve been on it.”

 

“I mean out on the ocean, man! It feels like we’re the only people in the whole wide world out here.” He pointed over the railing at the blue nothingness around them. “I’ve never been out on the ocean before. I actually thought I would be way more afraid than this.”

 

It was weird hearing Jaehyun talk so passionately about something that wasn’t a girl he was trying to hook up with.

 

Hoesung glanced around as if checking for a camera aimed in his direction. Kwangjin and Hoon had gone below deck as the constant rocking of the boat had gotten them both feeling queasy and in need to lie down. Seunghyub was at the stern of the boat, a fishing rod in his hands and waiting for a bite.

 

No camera.

 

Jaehyun must have picked up on Hoesung’s apprehension. “I’m serious, man. I rarely get to leave the city with all of the private tutors and cram schools and internships. This summer, I’ve just been able to chill and have fun and eat junk food with you guys. I needed this. I mean it. I probably would have died from stress without you and the others.”

 

Hoesung didn’t know what to say.

 

The past few weeks, he’d only been thinking about the group’s inevitable end as everyone else left town. First Jaehyun, then Kwangjin, then Hoon and, most terribly of all, Seunghyub. They were growing up and the real world was calling. 9 to 5s and morning classes and the high expectations of aging parents. Oh my.

 

Hoesung never really thought that what they were doing out here today could be a happy escape and he definitely hadn’t considered that he was part of the reason these boys were happy.

 

“No problem,” he finally said, allowing himself to smile and feel happy, too. “I’m glad we all got to know each other. I’m glad we became friends.”

 

~*~

 

Alone in the wheelhouse, Hoesung stared through his dad’s spyglass out the bridge windows. He’d spotted about two large commercial planes, a smaller private jet, a few birds, another oil tanker, six dolphins and a whale.

 

None of those things were mermaids.

 

He was keeping an eye on the boat’s dashboard. On the gauges and screens and radars. He hated to admit it but they would have to turn back soon. Gas was not an infinite resource and they had drifted farther out to sea than Hoesung felt comfortable admitting. It was also Monday and his favorite TV show came on at eight. Boy, would it be a hassle trying to convince the boys to call the hunt a failure and head home.

 

Hoesung sighed and lowered the spyglass from his eye. He took a step backwards only to run up against something solid. Something that hadn’t been there moments before.

 

Startled, he whirled around only to find Seunghyub grinning from ear to ear behind him.

 

“How long have you been in here?” Hoesung asked. He had thought his friend was still fishing.

 

“A while,” Seunghyub admitted. “Watching you.”

 

“Stop fooling around.”

 

“I was,” insisted Seunghyub. He leaned down to whisper conspiratorially. “You’re having a blast, aren’t you?”

 

“Huh?” Hoesung looked away.

 

“You’re having fun! Admit it.”

 

“Not really.”

 

“Wrong! You should have seen the look on your face just now. So diligent and thoughtful. You’re really getting into this. Giving it your all.”

 

Hoesung sighed and turned back around, peering through the spyglass once again. “I just really want you guys to find your mermaid.”

 

“ _Our_ mermaid. You want to find it, too. You’re grinning.”

 

“Because you’re being silly.”

 

“I’m being truthful. If you want, I can help you track down the mermaid.”

 

His offer hung in the air for a long moment. If Hoesung accepted it, he’d be admitting that he actually believed there was a mermaid out here. If he refused, he was afraid he’d spoil the mood of the trip. Seunghyub and the others seemed to be genuinely into this and Hoesung didn’t want to be the one who spoiled the group’s last big hurrah.

 

Not knowing what to say, he said nothing and continued to scan the horizon.

 

Then Hoesung felt something be placed on top of his head. “What is that?” He asked without bothering to move.

 

“I found it in one of the cabins. It’s a hat.”

 

Hoesung lowered the spyglass and glanced over his shoulder at the tiny mirror that hung on the wall beneath his father’s calendars and maps and old photographs. The hat was small and white with navy blue piping that matched their uniforms exactly. “Must belong to one of my dad’s crew,” he commented.  

 

“Now you really look like a captain.”

 

“Me?” Hoesung turned to look up at the older boy. “But you’re the leader.”

 

Seunghyub made a funny face and waved away the title like it was little more than a buzzing fly. “You’re the captain.” He brought his hands up to Hoesung’s new hat and readjusted it so that it sat more centered on his dark hair. “You’re the one who brought us all together. The puzzle piece that made us all fit.”

 

This was news to Hoesung.

 

“I know what you’re going to say. That it’s not you. But it is. I saw you at the marina all those months ago and thought you looked so cool working on this boat with your dad and the crew. Then Hoon said you fixed his bike so he started following you around and wanting to hang out.”

 

“I didn’t fix it,” Hoesung said. “It was just a slipped chain. Anyone could-”

 

“Ssh,” Seunghyub put his entire hand across Hoesung’s mouth. “Then Jaehyun wanted to hang out with us because he thought we were stylish and cool and then Kwangjin saw us all together and invited us to his barbecue.”

 

Hoesung tried to speak but Seunghyub tightened his grip on the younger boy’s face.

 

“You’re great, Hoesung,” Seunghyub said, not joking at all. “If it hadn’t been for you, my last summer here would have been a drag. I’d spend my days doing nothing more exciting than helping old ladies put sunscreen on their backs. I know you hate on yourself a lot but look at you. Piloting this big boat without any help from your dad.”

 

At last, he dropped his hand from Hoesung’s mouth, who was so stunned by the gratitude he was being shown today that he could not figure out how to react.

 

“I’m going to miss you when I leave, Hoesung. I’m sure that we all will.”

 

Hoesung swallowed hard, face turning red. He spun away from Seunghyub and held up the spyglass again. It could have been the joy of the moment playing tricks on his eyes or perhaps his own imagination running wild but… but didn’t he just see movement off the port side? Far too big to be a dolphin?

 

“Hold on,” he said.

 

He readjusted the spyglass and tried to find the movement again. Had he imagined it? No. Wait. Right there. Rising slowly up out of the water, towering above the distant waves.

 

No way.

 

Was it really?

 

In a strange way, it was exactly like Kwangmin had said back on the boardwalk: there was sort of a nose and _maybe_ some eyebrows.

 

“I don’t believe it. Look. Look!” He nearly smacked Seunghyub upside the head with the spyglass in his haste to push the instrument into his friend’s hands.

 

“Where? Where?” Seunghyub asked, putting his eye to the spyglass.

 

Hoesung grabbed hold of Seunghyub’s wrist and guided him towards the direction he’d seen the shape. He couldn’t be imagining it. He could see it with his own two eyes.

 

“Full steam ahead!” Seunghyub screamed at the top of his lungs.

 

This time, Hoesung was happy to oblige him.

 

~*~

 

It took three minutes to go below deck and round up the others. Kwangjin was in the galley devouring a bag of onion-flavored chips, Jaehyun was in the cabin napping, while Hoon took a bit longer to locate and was actually in the bathroom staring at himself in the mirror with the glazed-over facial expression of someone who hadn’t moved in a while.

 

By the time all five of them were on deck, the shape Seunghyub and Hoesung spotted earlier had vanished.

 

Kwangjin shrugged it off. “False alarm?” After their last mermaid sighting had ended up being a cloud, he’d gotten over the whole thing and was secretly ready to head back to shore.

 

“I swear, it was right over here,” Hoesung searched the horizon frantically with his eyes, rushing from the port side railing to the starboard side railing like he was on fire. “We both saw it!”

 

Jaehyun nodded. “Honestly, I believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hoesung move that fast so I _know_ he saw something.”

 

“Then where did it go?” Kwangjin asked between mouthfuls of chips.

 

Hoon pointed to the wooden deck beneath his feet like _Maybe back underwater?_

 

“You’re a genius,” Seunghyub laughed, smacking him on the shoulder.

 

They all rushed up to the starboard side railing and peered over the side and down into the dark, blue depths. “Other side, other side,” Jaehyun suggested.

 

All five of them rushed to the other side and leaned over the railing.

 

There she was. A massive dark shape almost directly beneath the boat. It clearly wasn’t the shadow of a cloud this time.

 

“As I live and breathe,” Hoesung had to step back and blink to keep from absolutely losing it.

 

“She’s stunning,” Seunghyub cried out.

 

“Take a picture, take a picture,” Kwangjin screamed. His earlier disbelief had evaporated.

 

“I left my phone in the wheelhouse.”

 

“Oh my god!”

 

Hoesung approached the railing again, carefully leaning over as if afraid he’d be snatched right off the deck. He hadn’t been entirely sure the first time but now he was. He could see a pale, thin arm. He could count the fingers on the mermaid’s hand.

 

She was real and she was massive. As big as the boat. Perhaps larger.

 

“Let’s catch it!” Seunghyub jostled Hoesung aside. In the seconds Hoesung hadn’t been looking, Seunghyub had gone to retrieve his fishing rod.

 

“ _That’s_ what you’re going to try to catch it with?” Hoesung couldn’t believe it.

 

Seunghyub exclaimed, “Hell yeah!”

 

The other boys whooped and hollered in agreement except Hoon who just propped his chin on his fist like _We are guaranteed to succeed_.

 

“Are you for real?” Hoesung asked as he watched Seunghyub bait the hook. “That’s how you’re going to catch a mermaid? With a fishing rod and a tiny worm?”

 

“Umm, it’s professional grade!” Seunghyub was indignant.

 

“It’s a big fish, isn’t it?” asked Kwangjin sarcastically. “What’s more appetizing than a worm?”

 

Jaehyun said, “I saw this in a movie once,” as if that explained everything.

 

“Trust me,” Seunghyub said as he propped a foot up on the railing for balance and reared back to cast the line.

 

Hoesung stepped back and muttered, almost to himself, “Am I living in some alternative dimension? Does logic just work differently for you guys?” Then a shocking thought came to him that made him gasp. “Are you guys just a hallucination? Have I been talking to myself _all_ summer? Am I _that_ lonely?”

 

The others didn’t seem to hear him which just made Hoesung legitimately anxious. He pressed his fingers against his temples to fight off a sudden headache.  

 

With a holler, Seunghyub flung the rod forward and they all watched in rapt admiration as the hook flew gracefully through the air before falling into the water.

 

Hoesung had mentally checked out, searching his memories for any clues hinting at the boys being just figments of his imagination. No, they couldn’t be… Just today, the girl at the frozen yogurt counter had given him five spoons.

 

Suddenly, Seunghyub yelled four words that changed everything: “I’ve got a bite!”

 

Almost immediately afterwards, there was a large splash in front of the boat and then the rod twisted into a tight upside down U-shape miraculously without snapping in half.

 

Then the five of them were thrown to the deck as the boat rocked violently to the side.

 

“It’s pulling us!” Seunghyub shouting, smile wide and eyes twinkling. “I’ve got it. I’ve got it!”

 

A wave crashed over the bow of the boat, showering water down on them. Hoesung got the majority of what hit him in his eyes and down his throat. He nearly gagged coughing up the bitter salt water.

 

“Give me a hand here, guys,” Seunghyub cried out. Somehow he was still standing and was holding his own in a tug of war match against the mermaid.

 

The other boys, all of them soaked through, stood up and rushed to Seunghyub’s side, hands gripping the fishing rod to add their strength to his.

 

“Pull!” Kwangjin ordered.

 

They all pulled. The mermaid pulled back.

 

The boat surged sideways, tilting dangerously close to the water. They rode up one side of a wave and slid down the other side. They all struggled to stay upright.

 

Seunghyub readjusted his grip on the fishing rod. “Pull!”

 

The five of them pulled again, straining and straining. Hoesung could feel the weight of the mermaid on the other end of the line. Impossibly heavy. Impossibly strong. Seunghyub reeled in the line as quickly as he could manage.

 

The boat hit another, larger wave. Gravity seemed to hiccup and temporarily let go of them. Then all of their weight was thrown the other way as the boat moved unnaturally over the water. The bow plunged towards the water and sent a towering spray above them on either side. The water belted them in the face and across their arms with surprising velocity.

 

Hoesung realized they were being pulled at an incredible speed. The mermaid was flinging them over wave after wave and, somehow, the tiny fishing line hadn’t snapped yet.

 

Another one of Seunghyub’s ridiculous ideas was actually working.

 

Then it stopped. One last surprisingly gentle tug and then there was no longer resistance on the other end of the line. The boys stumbled backwards, bowling into each other and then falling onto the deck on their backsides.

 

“Damn. It got away,” Seunghyub grumbled. He finished reeling in the line and they all stared at the empty hook.

 

“It took the bait,” Kwangjin said, pointing.

 

“We almost had it,” Jaehyun added. “We actually almost had it.”

 

Hoon pushed his wet hair out of his eyes like _I thought our success was guaranteed but this new development is equally intriguing_.    

 

Hoesung threw up his hands. He was actually kind of upset that Seunghyub’s half-ass plan had worked. “I know nothing. I understand nothing.”

 

More excited than put-down by the failure, the others laughed and started a vigorous round of high-fives and chest bumps.

 

Of course it would be Hoesung who rained on their parade. “Alright, that’s enough.”

 

Slowly, their excitement died down. They all turned to him with all kinds of frowns on their faces.

 

“We’re turning around,” Hoesung said. “We’re going back to shore.”

 

Like a group of whiny children, they all whimpered “Aww” in unison except Hoon who rubbed the tip of his nose which meant the same thing.

 

“No fair,” Jaehyun said.

 

“We actually caught the blasted thing,” griped Kwangjin. “How about one more go?”

 

Seunghyub stepped forward and gave Hoesung’s shoulders a mighty shake. “Let’s track it again. Surely something that big shows up on the sonar! Let’s follow it. Maybe there are others. We can photograph them, sell the pics and be rich. Screw college!”

 

Hoesung pushed Seunghyub’s hands away. He would not give in. He couldn’t! “I’m turning us around. There’s a storm brewing, it’s getting late and the mermaid pulled us even farther out to sea and I’m not even sure we’ll have enough gas to get back!”

 

With his shout, the others stopped their whining and complaining and fell into silence. It was like the seriousness of the situation had only just been made plain to them.

 

Way off the port side, gathering storm clouds were visible on the horizon. They were a dark gray slash between the sky and the ocean. It had snuck up on them while they were wrestling with the mermaid.

 

Hoon put both hands on his head and tugged on his hair like _I knew it would rain!_

 

As if to reiterate, Hoesung said, “We’re going back.” Now he didn’t care if he was ruining summer or if he was being a wet rag. Their safety was his number one concern and he didn’t want anything bad happening to his friends.

 

~*~

 

They couldn’t outrun the storm. That much should have been obvious.

 

More and more of the sky above them was darkening with gray clouds. Howling winds whipped past the windows and thunder rumbled low and powerful in the distance. Every now and then, a flash of lighting would split the sky. The setting sun, peeking through a break in the clouds, shone on them in a dusky pink spotlight. The ocean, agitated by the storm, churned up rocky waves that shoved the boat up and down and up and down and made Kwangjin hurl the contents of his stomach off the stern side.

 

Hoesung was terrified.

 

He had only rode out on the boat in a storm like this once before but his dad had been at the helm and the crew, with their nerves of steel, had carried on with their work regardless.

 

But this was different. Hoesung didn’t have an experienced crew, he wasn’t entirely sure if the high numbers on some of the gauges were a good thing or a bad thing, the boat was still out of range to reach someone on the ship-to-shore radio and the low fuel light had been on for the last ten minutes.

 

He was stressed. Every muscle in his body was tense as he did his best to steer the boat over the rough waves and keep them pointed in the general direction of the shore.

 

It didn’t help that Seunghyub, forever fearless and never serious, casually lounged in the captain’s chair next to him reading an article in a magazine about recent mermaid sightings, oohing and awwing over the photos.

 

The wheelhouse door swung open and a completely soaked Jaehyun stood there, his hair whipping in the wind, the sky dark behind him. “Guys, something terrible happened,” he cried out, looking terrified.

 

Hoesung immediately thought the worst. A fire? A leak?

 

Seunghyub was the one who spoke up. “What is it?”

 

Jaehyun frowned deeply, like he was trying to hold back tears. “We’re out of snacks!”

 

Hoesung bit his bottom lip to keep from screaming in frustration. His tight grip on the steering wheel was probably the only thing keeping him from hurling Jaehyun off the side of the boat.

 

“Out of snacks!” Seunghyub repeated, looking scandalized. “I swear, I only had two bags of chips, one bag of candy and one packet of that weird applesauce stuff.”

 

Jaehyun nodded fervently. “I ate all of the chocolate, I must admit. Kwangjin’s been snacking all day. I bet he ate all the rest. Why didn’t he buy enough?”

 

“Do you think Hoon ate all of it? He’d never admit it,” Seunghyub shook his head and tsked like a disapproving parent.

 

Hoesung reached into the pocket of his shorts. “I still have this.” He held up an individually wrapped snack cake, barely the size of his palm and coated in white frosting and sprinkles.

 

Seunghyub sprang to his feet. “You’ve been holding out on us.”

 

“The fiend,” Jaehyun agreed, his eyes narrowing. “How could you?”

 

Seunghyub attempted to snatch the treat out of Hoesung’s hand but Hoesung yanked his hand backwards and out of the boy’s range. “We five-way split it,” he said firmly.

 

~*~

 

Below deck in the galley, they all sat around the bolted-down table, trying to ignore the boat’s rocking and the bright white lightning flashes shining through the portholes.

 

It had been Hoon’s precise knife skills that had split the vanilla snack cake into five equal bite-size chunks and now he gingerly sat them on napkin squares in front of the boys like he was handing out pieces of something sacred.

 

“I should have bought the family-size chip bags,” Kwangjin said, frowning deeply. “They had a buy-one-get-one special on the flamin’ hot peanuts and I didn’t capitalize on it!”

 

Seunghyub raised his voice like a pastor much like he had done earlier that day with the ramen. “Let us bow our heads in prayer. O Lord, we come to you-”

 

“We’re not going to make it back,” Hoesung interrupted, unceremoniously popping his snack cake slice into his mouth. It was nothing but sugar and tasted artificial and hollow on his tongue. It wasn’t even good in a bad way.

 

“What?” Kwangjin asked. He’d been nibbling on the side of his snack cake, taking the most microscopic of bites in order to make it last.

 

“We don’t have enough gas to get back to shore,” Hoesung clarified. He’d been trying to figure out how to tell them for ages now but sometimes just being direct was the best method.

 

Hoon chewed on his miniature cake slice and furrowed his brow like _I said this would happen but no one listens to me_.

 

Jaehyun gasped sharply. “Are we going to die out here? We’ll drift out here for twenty days. Will we have to resort to cannibalism? I’m nothing but lean meat so we should probably start with Kwangjin.”

 

Hoesung continued as if he hadn’t heard. “I can keep trying the radio and see if I can get in touch with the coast guard. We’ll have to get a tow and I’m sure my dad will kill me once he gets the bill.”

 

“Or,” Seunghyub shouted as he chewed, commanding the room’s attention, “we lure the mermaid to us, catch her and get her to pull us to shore.”

 

For some strange reason, to the majority of the gathered boys, this was the more effective solution. “Let’s do it!” Kwangjin said.

 

“But aren’t we out of bait?” Jaehyun pointed out. “Seunghyub used it all up earlier playing around. We don’t even have snacks left.”

 

Hoesung rolled his eyes. For the first time all day, he was actually very glad that summer was ending and he wouldn’t have to hang out with these guys again. Screw sentimentality. Sometimes people were only in your life for a season and Hoesung was suddenly okay with that. Life lesson learned. “We can just call a tow,” he repeated, trying to get the others to listen.

 

No dice.

 

“We’ll have to use live bait,” Seunghyub said with conviction. “One of us will have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the rest of us.”

 

Hoon nodded sagely like _What an honorable death_.

 

“We can call the coast guard,” Hoesung said again. How did these boys keep their heads attached to their shoulders?

 

His plea fell on deaf ears. “I’d love to be bait but I have a party to get to tonight,” Kwangjin said. He reached across the table to snatch Jaehyun’s portion of snack cake since the other boy had made the grave mistake of not immediately eating it.

 

Hoon put his finger to his nose like _Not it_.

 

In that moment, a silent decision had been made. It took Hoesung a long moment to realize that Seunghyub, Jaehyun, Kwangjin and even Hoon were all staring at him expectantly, their eyes dangerously serious. Eyes wide with shock, he put both hands on his chest and screeched, “Me?”

 

“Thanks for volunteering.” Seunghyub said. Then his voice dropped an octave and he grinned rather devilishly. “Get him.”

 

~*~

 

Hoesung was actually more okay with this decision than he thought he’d be. Part of it was him just being completely over how crappy the day had turned out but it was mainly due to the fact that he was shocked that Seunghyub’s fishing rod could even support his weight.

 

Ahh, professional grade.

 

It was Jaehyun that had threaded the fishing hook through the back of Hoesung’s shirt collar and it was Seunghyub that managed to gently lower him over the side of the boat and into the choppy waves.

 

“You’re such a brave soul,” Jaehyun said.

 

Kwangjin’s face was solemn and hard. “You will be missed.”

 

Hoon tugged his ears like _What a great summer vacation_.

 

“Let’s send him off properly, boys,” Seunghyub shouted over the wind.

 

In nearly perfect unison, they held their right hands up to their foreheads in salutes. Seunghyub taking his hand off of the handle of the fishing reel made Hoesung fall faster into the waves.

 

Hoesung held up his arm and gave them a thumbs up. He couldn’t even be surprised at this development. “Yeah, whatever.” Then his head went beneath the dark waves in a tumble of bubbles, followed soon after by his upraised thumb.

 

“A moment of silence,” said Kwangjin.

 

Hoon started a vocal rendition of Taps and the funerary song was so fitting in the moment that none of the others noticed that Hoon was actually making sounds with his mouth.

 

The mermaid took the bait almost immediately afterwards, as if she had been lurking in the stormy ocean nearby. The whole boat rocked forward as the mermaid grabbed the bait.

 

“I got her. I got her!” Seunghyub shouted as the storm raged above them. “Pull!”

 

The four boys all grabbed hold of the fishing rod and pulled. Seunghyub reeled in the line like a madman, spitting out a mouthful of salt water as an angry ocean wave splashed over them.

 

“Just a little more. I have her!” Seunghyub reeled in with all of his might. “Pull! Pull!”

 

The boys pulled and, with one great heave, hoisted the mermaid out of the water. She towered above the bow of the boat, dark hair whipping around her shoulders in the raging wind.

 

“We really did it!” Jaehyun ran up to the ship railing and leaned dangerously far over it to get a better look.

 

“Take a picture, take a picture,”  Kwangjin impatiently punched Seunghyub in the shoulder as the other boy rescued his phone from his soaking wet shorts and tried to get the thing to turn on. “Hurry!”

 

Hoon folded his arms across his chest like _Something’s fishy_.

 

Jaehyun noticed it as well. “Guys,” he called out to get their attention as the mermaid used a hand to pull their hair out of their face. “That’s no mermaid.”

 

Kwangjin and Seunghyub stopped squabbling and stared up at the sea creature who looked down at them just as curiously.

 

It definitely wasn’t a mermaid. It was a merman. And in the merman’s hand was Hoesung, chin propped up on his fist looking bored out of his mind. “Worst summer vacation ever,” he moaned.


End file.
